[4:05] "There's a big black market for these phones, particularly in China, Africa, South America. The used devices can often sell for a lot less than the new ones so there's a lot of demand."

And one phone that won't be part of the stolen iPhone statistics, belongs to Steve's wife (he chose to not use his last name or his wife's first name).

Steve located his wife's stolen phone on a plane from Atlanta to Bozeman, Montana using the "Find My iPhone" app. A flight attendant pulled out a blue hiking bag that didn't belong to Steve or his wife:

[4:31] "The flight attendant then opens the bag. Inside the bag in another zipper pocket that was zipped shut was her phone, pinging."

The well-dressed, twenty-something thief was greeted by police when he got off the plane in Montana. But Steve and his wife settled for an apology and did not press charges.

soundoff(63 Responses)

screen frozen on iphone

You actually make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I find this matter to be really one thing that I think I'd never understand. It seems too complex and very wide for me. I'm looking ahead to your next post, I will attempt to get the hang of it!

there is a lively market for iphones left in cabs in chicago,cab drivers will usually sell the iphone at a couple of restaurants frequented by them,this pertains to a specific ethnic/national group,these restaurants close to each other in a certain well known for it's retaurants and groceries ethnic area,,the phone will then be sent of to this one country,where it will be resold.all cabdrivers are forewarned to switch the phone off,and to take out it's batteries!!

oh wow I didn't know that. I am from Chicago and when I was visiting last my brother was telling me about all the iPhone thefts on the EL (train for those not from Chicago). But he said it was getting pretty bad! And thanks for commenting and checking out the story.

Too bad NYC police wouldn't do anything even though I had the address where my stolen laptop was. Their reasoning: "it probably won't be there anymore by the time we get there". Great work guys, keep up the stop and frisks.

I don't have an iPhone but I've had my computer stolen in the past. I installed Blackberry Protect on my phone and Devicetrack.net on my laptop (for windows), so if it ever happens again, I plan on tracking them down and having them busted! Plus, the Devicetrack.net thing also lets me log in to my laptop if it's ever stolen so I can download and delete my files.

Easy fix to this it's called the ichain! It's like the chained wallets but it goes around your iPhone and connects to your pants. Apple will release new iterations of it each year with 43% increased security and strength and after some time they may even increase the length if the chain! Look for it being released alongside the iPhone 5s!

1) Important story on being cautious and the crimes that are occurring and if you have an iPhone – how you can locate it.... (That's the point isn't it?)
2) I think it was well written. (No, I am not Jonathan.) It is just a short news article.
3) At least Steve and his wife did something about the situation.. for those judging him. He did it also at the risk of their own safety. (Dangerous.) They also possibly stopped it from occurring again. (Bravo.)
4) So much criticism... Gee whiz.

A couple of years ago I was in New Orleans for a meeting. I was on my IPhone in a crowded upscale mall on Canal St. I was talking to my son on my IPhone and was hit on the back of the head by someone as I was talking. He didn't grab my purse (which was dangling from my shoulder), or my shopping bags – he ripped the phone right out of my hand while I was on it. Fortunately I wasn't very hurt, just startled. The police office that I spoke with following the incident said it's an incredibly common crime in New Orleans for exactly the reasons stated in the article. He said that thieves look for a person on a phone, distracted and target them. He said often they will even approach people in groups, not just people walking on their own. He said your guard is down and you're not expecting it. His suggestion was not to talk or text without sitting down or standing in an area that you can see around you. He said to look up and at my surroundings if I'm talking, and better yet, to use a bluetooth and put the phone out of sight. It was very upsettting, but I'm wiser for it.

My son's phone was stolen out of his classroom (in middle school) after it fell out of his pocket (he returned one class period later and it wasn't there)... we (wife and son) started the "finding" process after he got home, and saw it moving down a neighborhood road. We notified police, they went but didn't find it, and it stopped "checking in"... so we disabled the phone's account temporarily to prevent abuse, putting on a stolen phone notice that would tell anyone who had it to return it. After I got home, we decided to temporarily reactivate so I could run a trace again. It was about 10 blocks from our house (it had been turned back on)... wife and I got in the car and to the location and saw an "iPhone repair" company wrapped truck in a driveway at the location. We immediately called police, who met the guy, and ended up getting our phone back with a story of "some person who he bought it from" given to the police.
Later turns out someone at the school was stealing several phones and reselling them, so we could have ignored it and let others be victimized, or pursued it as we did, and the thief was caught, disciplined (sent the the alternative juvenile program), and the "buyer" was basically on notice that now the police have a good starting point for future such thefts.
The point isn't the money/cost, it's that theft of anything is NEVER acceptable, and should never be tolerated. To do so just encourages more theft.

Actually, it seems more like the point is that your son is not responsible enough to have a cell phone. I've had cell phones for 15+ years now, and it has never fallen out of my pocket. Also, I still don't understand why a middle school aged kids needs a cell phone.

Dkkm and g, way to pass judgement on Chris' kid. Sounds like you two are choosing to be part of the problem and not the solution. The issue isn't the child, it's the dishonest people who took advantage of his son dropping his phone. If the thief was an honest person, then this ocnversation wouldn't be happening. At this point, wiht comments such as yours,you two must be spoiled brats as well. Grow up.

Actually, if Chris had given her kid a cheap, disposable phone that only makes calls, like a TrakPhone, this conversation wouldn't be happening, because that phone would've probably still been lying on the floor when the kid came back. Dkkb and g are right, middle-school-aged kids are prone to losing things, and an expensive cell phone is not appropriate for a child of that age. A cheap throwaway phone is. Don't want to be victimized in a crime? Don't gave your kid a phone that would make them a target.

Why won't the carriers just have a policy of refusing to activate stolen phones. Every phone has a unique ID number. If the person who legally owns the phone reports it stolen, it should be activated. If the carriers won't do this because they don't want to loose business, then maybe the government needs to force the carriers to do this. It would be so simple and solve the problem of stolen phones overnight. Its a no brainer!

Right Now, Sprint and Verizon have a policy to not active any iPhone that was previously reported stolen. AT&T should do the same. But again, it does not stop the the thief from jailbreaking the device and using it.

Actually, AT&T and I believe the other carriers have implemented a process to disallow a stolen smartphone from being reactivated on their network. At some point in the near future, if not already, they will have the ability to share this stolen phone info across carriers. This in itself should help drive down theft of smartphones.

You are right, but the blacklist extends to any GSM carrier worldwide not just AT&T or tmobile. ANY phone reported stolen is now worthless unless you can spoof an imei which is not very easily done. Best thing to do is to make sure find my iPhone is enabled on your device or if you have an android download where's my droid and to understand how to use them!!! Test it out! For all other smartphones or for added protection many carriers now offer a mobile locate feature you can add to your account that gives the ability to ping a device and find its current or last known location. And one last bit of advice... if you notice that the MOST stolen phone is an iphone then maybe just maybe you should try something else, you might like what you find😉 Hope this helps!

Good points! Especially about iPhones. I thought about that while doing this story. Perhaps someone should make an iPhone case that LOOKS like an Android🙂 But for real, thanks for adding your thoughts to the conversation!

Correct. My daughter misplaced her phone (it actually fell in her school backpack) on a friday and verizon put it on a stolen list so it could not be activated. We found it the following monday when she went back to school.

How many of these stories are they going to publish about someone using some kind of app or online tool to get their iPhone back? Do providers not allow insurance on iPhones like other phones? I've lost phones before. "Oh crap, I lost my phone, oh well, I have insurance." Then I go to the provider and get another one. Sure, I understand the concept that things should not be stolen from you and it's your right to get it back, but in other stories, people have went way overboard to get it back. It just boggles my mind that people seem to have the mentality of "it's MY iPhone and there is no other like it." It's a phone.

It's the jerks like you that cause the insurance rates to go up. Sorry I take care of my stuff and if I lose it, that's that. I didn't have a rich mommy and daddy to spoil me and teach me to steal from the insurance companies. I was raised proper.

Paying for and using insurance is exactly what insurance should be used for. If the policy covers lost or stolen, then you are following the rules the insurance company set when you elected to have said service. It is the insurance companies that punish us for using a service they provide. Has nothing to do with a rich or poor mommy and daddy. I would think people from poor families would see more value in insurance than those that grew up wealthy. Maybe you shouldn't be so concerned with someone using the service they paid for. If you lose your phone and that's that, then why are you so concerned about the cost of a service you refuse to use?

Dude insurance rates didn't go up, the price and value of phones did... Insurance rates are respectively low comparatively. You break an iPhone and insurance costs you... Oh the same price you paid for that iPhone! And here's a trick... Deductibles are the same whether you lose the phone or break it so if you break it claim it lost, pay the deductible, sell the broken phone, profit

Might have to do a lot with what is on the iPhone. Back in the day, phones only held so much info. An iPhone would be all someone would need for identity theft of the worse kind. Knowing who has it and where it is may be helpful to a lot of people, especially those who use or got their phone from work and have sensitive material. There are several ways to wipe the device remotely but it may be equally valuable to the owner to know who got a look at the data.

The only protection you can get on an iPhone is the Applecare protection. It does not cover loss or theft. And, you know the majority of iPhone owners are pretentious, idiotic tools that value their iproducts mroe than their own lives. (And I am an iPhone user, but reluctantly and only because the Androids have become too large for my liking).

It has nothing to do with pay attention, the pickpocket distracts you by bumping into or some other benign distraction.

Let me ask you this, you've seen magicians do slight of hand tricks right? Are you telling me *you* pay such close attention, you expose them every time? I think not. Pickpocketing is the same concept, disctraction/misdirection = prize.

So obviously Steve and Steve's wife didn't do as instructed and turn the phones off. Otherwise, the phone would not have been located. I'm amazed they weren't charged for failure to deactivate a cellular device on an airplane.

Well Steve was actually able to ping the phone before the plane took off and before people were told to turn their phones off. Plus the flight attendants were helping/aware of the situation. P.S. this is the guy who told the story.

The point of the story is that the phone was stolen. It likely was not stolen while everyone was seated after final boarding and takeoff, when it would be quite difficult to simply walk to a seated person on a plane and rob them. Stands to reason, simple common sense reason, that at some point before the plane went airborne, the phone was stolen. At that point, most phone owners have their devices turned on. This comment was just silly enough that I felt compelled to point out what seemed so obvious but apparently wasn't as common sense as one might assume. Sometimes all it takes to not miss the obvious is a minute or two to think a thought through. It is a declining practice

With the iPhone' IMEI and Serial Number (first one used by cellular carriers, second one by iTunes) burned into the hardware, I don't understand why these devices aren't immediately flagged when stolen.

I guess certain cellular provides rely strictly on the SIM cards but the iPhone/iPod/iPad is pretty worthless without the Apple App Store. Since I've registered all my hardware ID's with Apple, I don't understand why they can't or won't shut down devices that are flagged as stolen and then re-registered.

Am I missing something? Seems like it would be just one more column in a data table.

I understand jail-breaking's benefits and pitfalls however I would argue that the appeal of a stolen Apple product is based on it being an APPLE PRODUCT and having all of the benefits and features associated. Number one being the +500,000 apps available in the AppStore.

Well at least you said only "parts of this story" and not the whole thing🙂 But my aim was to share an entertaining story and clearly not an in depth report on iPhone thefts. Sorry if you didn't enjoy. So I see your point, but for the record I did graduate!

Do you know where the couple lives? If it's not in Bozeman and they weren't going to be there very long it might not have been feasible. I don't know all the ins and outs of pressing charges, but if they had to fly back there for a court date would you pay for the tickets?

Find My Phone doesn't work against most thieves. I recently had my iPhone 5 pick pocketed from me at NFL game while I was on the way to the restroom. Upon returning I realized it wasn't in my back pocket. I quickly grabbed one of my friends iPhones and logged into Find My Phone with my account, Phone was turned off.

Any thief that is aware of the tracking quickly turns the phone off and removes the sim card. The phone will never appear on the network, and no way of tracking or remote erasing it.

Sure turning off the phone gets around that, but I have that app installed on my own ipad and ipod and also my kids, and have used it to get them back when they were stolen, because the ipad and ipod, are devices that they have to turn on in order to erase them. When my oldest son's ipod was stolen out of his gym locker, he immediately called me and I logged into my account and remote locked and password protected his ipod and then notified the police and also the school. I also remained logged in because the thief had turned it off. About 6 hours later, it alerted me that it was turned on, and I called the police and told them where to find it. The kid who took it was trying to erase it through itunes when he realized that he couldn't erase it from the device itself due to the password protection. Basically that app may be useless to an iPhone because of the reasons you stated, but it is very useful for the iPad and iPods, because there are no sim cards that can be removed to get around it.

You'll need the person to turn it on, with an open access point first off, if the iPad/Pod can't connect to the internet, still no go there. So, if by chance the person does turn it on, and it connects to a AP, or the stupid thief connects it to the AP, yes, your are correct.

However, most professional iDevice thieves, not children, also know how turn a iPhone/Pad/Pod on in recovery mode and wipe it, by hold down the home/sleep button while powering it on, the phone immediately goes into recovery mode, where they can wipe it in iTunes.

>The well-dressed, twenty-something thief was greeted by police when he got off the plane in Montana. But Steve and his wife settled for an apology and did not press charges.

See, that's part of the problem right there. No 'penalty for failure' applied to the thief. All this thief has learned is that you have to dress well, look clean-cut, act contrite, and you can probably get away with a lot after the fact.

Thanks a lot, Steve and 'Wife'. All you've done is help train another predator.

Agreed. The "well-dressed thief" should have had charges pressed against him. I do not understand how the victims in this could let someone like that off the hook. Did he somehow think the iPhone was his even though it may have been locked, had a totally foreign address book, or even was the wrong color in a different case? Not likely. You don't coddle those kinds of people. You press charges.